


About Ursula

by ramannoodles



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-07
Updated: 2014-10-07
Packaged: 2018-02-16 12:25:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 7,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2269641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ramannoodles/pseuds/ramannoodles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She never felt comfortable around either group, really.  She never felt “Asian” enough for her Asian friends.  And, although she really enjoyed hanging out with her other friends, it was always a little off.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

She never felt comfortable around either group, really.  She never felt “Asian” enough for her Asian friends.  They fell into that unfortunate Smart Asian Kid stereotype that Ursula herself found very harmful.  Not that Ursula wasn’t smart.  She just didn’t necessarily excel at academics they way Asians were “supposed to.” And, although she really enjoyed hanging out with her other friends, it was always a little off. She sometimes did things that they wouldn’t understand.  They couldn’t understand why she hated going to Chinese restaurants or why she got so upset when she saw white people wearing kimonos.

Hanging out with both groups, separately, was how she kept her balance.  She had wanted it to stay that way.  She still isn’t happy that things changed.

It was middle school when she started to notice the changes.  All her friends were starting to talk about boys or girls. She never had anyone to talk about, not really, anyway.  Sure, she kept up appearances by saying she liked this guy or that guy, but she wasn’t into any of them.

She was lucky to have Balthazar as her friend.  They had always been kind of close, Balthazar being the shy one and Ursula being the nice one that always went out of her way to make people feel comfortable. When he started talking about maybe not being into girls, and being into guys instead, she began to realize that maybe she wasn’t so weird after all.  It still took her a year before she confided in him that she didn’t like anyone at all. And one more before she told everyone else.

And just like that, the Asian community dropped her.  Her friends had been banned from coming over to her house.  She became taboo:  someone parents told their kids about so that they wouldn’t end up like her. They didn’t want the _asexual_ around, spreading her “modern” ideas. Maybe if she had just kept quiet, pretended to be straight for a few more years, she wouldn’t be in her current position.  But what kind of life was that?  Where you have to hide who you are in order to be accepted?

Her parents had taken the whole thing in stride; they had always been a little more open-minded than most. Pedro, as usual, was cool with anything, and didn’t bat an eyelash.  Ben really didn’t care.  Hero was too nice to say anything about the matter, so whether she approved or not, she just accepted her. It was Meg and Bea that took a little while to convince.  Meg thought she could change Ursula, she just needed to find the right person. And Bea was just skeptical of the whole thing in general.  But they both came around.  And at least all of them had treated her with kindness.

But she missed her Asian friends.  When you grow up in a community like that, it’s hard to suddenly not have people like you around. When guys started asking her out and telling her how much they “liked Asian girls” or had “never been in a relationship with an Asian before,” she had no one to talk to.  Her friends would listen, they would be sympathetic, but they still didn’t get it.

Sometimes she got up the nerve to dial one of her old friends’ numbers.  But she could never hit call.  The wound was still too fresh; she was still a little bitter.


	2. Chapter 2

Ursula knew what it was like to be an outsider.  Maybe that’s why she had taken Dogberry and Verges under her wing.  It wasn’t the same, she knew that, but misery loves company and she would take any company she could get.

Dogberry was oblivious to his position as an outsider.  He just did his own thing and didn’t care if people liked it or not. Verges was a little more sensitive, though.  She knew when she wasn’t wanted and was extremely uncomfortable around people she thought superior to herself.  So when Ursula had asked them if she could help them with their own personal detective show, Verges was ecstatic.  She had finally found someone, outside of Dogberry, who would take her seriously. And unlike Dogberry, Ursula could be confided in without reservation.  Ursula never judged anyone.

In a way, Ursula felt like an older sister to Verges.  She urged Verges to get out there more, to rid herself of her shy attitude. She reassured Verges that she was a nice person and when Verges got shot down (more often than not by Beatrice), she always made sure to be there, as a shoulder to cry on. She made sure that, no matter what Verges did, she never got angry.  She was going to be the solid person that everyone needs, but she herself had never had. If you want to see change in the world, you must first change yourself, after all.

Verges knew that Ursula wasn’t entirely happy with her life, even if she didn’t exactly know why. She was surprisingly perceptive, even if she wasn’t the smartest person around.  But she never asked Ursula what was wrong.  If Ursula wanted to talk about something, she would.

It was one of those days. The days when Ursula wished she could run back to her Asian community, wished that she had one of those friends to talk to, about anything.  She craved a friend with whom she could speak in Chinese or Japanese. She wanted to eat home-cooked Asian food with friends her age.  She lay, curled in a ball on her bed, with a box of tissues and her phone, dialing and re-dialing old friends’ numbers, but never clicking that call button. She doesn’t hear the doorbell ring or the banging of feet against the staircase before Verges bursts into her room.

It was one of those days. The days when Verges couldn’t handle all of the rude comments. The girls in her class mocking her and Dogberry’s detective show.  Her teacher yelling at her for her improper usage of the word metaphor.  Dogberry was of no help whatsoever.  The only thing keeping her going through the day was that at the end, she could go see Ursula.  Ursula always helped her figure things out.  She was surprised to see Ursula’s father answer the door, but she was too angry not to run up the stairs, banging her feet against each step.  She didn’t hear the sniffles or Ursula blowing her nose before she barged into the room.

Neither of them knew what to do.  This was novel territory. Verges had never seen Ursula crying before.

“So-Sorry, I’ll go.”

“No, no, it’s okay, stay.”

Ursula was not going to let Verges down.

Verges sat down on the bed. She didn’t say anything, she just hugged Ursula.

She hadn’t meant to tell Verges the whole story, but it just spilled out.  Everyone already knew about her asexuality, she’d stopped making it a secret a long time ago, but, save for Balthazar, she had told no one about how lonely she felt without her Asian friends or how she was still angry with them for how she had been treated or how she wasn’t sure whether she was ready to forgive them yet.  After what seemed like forever, Verges pulled back.

“I know I’m not the best at giving advice.  But I think you should call one of your old friends.  Maybe it won’t work out the way you want it to, but you owe it to yourself. At the very least, if you talk to one of them, maybe you can figure out whether you’re ready to forgive them or not.”

Ursula nodded; a newfound confidence had emerged.  With Verges sitting next to her, she re-dialed the number.  And this time she pressed call.


	3. Chapter 3

Ursula had known Beatrice for a few years now, seeing her whenever she came up to visit Hero. They got on well, although Ursula was more of the quiet type to Bea’s constant stream of conversation. But Bea could be a bit overbearing at times.  She decided what was appropriate, what was normal, who was worthy of interaction and if you didn’t listen to her, she made it very clear that she was not okay with that. She didn’t really understand that it wasn’t her job and that what she was doing was pretty harmful.

It was at the football field that Ursula came up with her plan.  It wasn’t a solid plan at first.  She didn’t know exactly how she was going to make it happen.  But she knew she would.

It started when Beatrice started making comments about Meg and Robbie’s relationship. Ursula still couldn’t get over the fact that she had been so judgmental.  Ursula didn’t really know where to go from there, though. She had to prove to Beatrice somehow that love was beautiful.

It came to her all of a sudden, and really she was surprised it hadn’t occurred to her earlier. She was in the middle of Ben and Bea’s argument yet again, and the idea formed.  She was going to get the two of them together. But she needed to get everyone else involved.  No reason that she should do this on her own.  Now that she thought about it, it was better if she stayed on the sidelines and somehow got one of the others to think this was their idea.  Now the question was how.

The answer came to her about two months later, in the form of a vlog.  After seeing Bea publicly reject Pedro, Ursula knew she could convince him that getting Bea and Ben together was a good idea. She started by stating obvious facts, “Bea never pays attention to anyone else when she’s arguing with Ben” and “Bea does not stop talking about how much she hates Ben.”  At first, Pedro just nodded, but it didn’t take long before he started adding in his own complaints about Ben.  Ursula started talking about how similar Ben and Bea were and how it was a pity since they used to be such good friends and before she could blink, Pedro was talking about how perfect they were for each other and getting team Love Gods together.  No one suspected that this was Ursula’s idea.  And she was not going to be the one people got upset with when Ben and Bea became the ultimate debating duo (although, Ursula had a feeling that them debating together was actually going to be a good thing).


	4. Chapter 4

Part of the reason Ursula didn’t actually want to be in charge of team Love Gods was because she had so much other stuff going on. Outside of her own photo and video projects and helping Dogberry and Verges with their detective show, she was also helping Balthazar. They had always been so close, telling each other things they were too afraid to tell anyone else.  
As Balthazar’s best friend, Ursula was completely unsurprised when Balthazar told her about his feelings for Pedro. She acted surprised, of course, because she didn’t want him to think he was being obvious, but she had known for a little while. She had seen it in his eyes when he so much as looked at Pedro. She noticed his change in behavior when Pedro entered a room. His slight blush when Pedro casually rested his hand on Balthazar’s leg. Subtle things that she only knew from spending so much time with him.  
Ursula had decided against making a plan to get Pedro and Balthazar together. She was going to let them figure this one out on their own. That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to help, she just wasn’t going to be the mastermind on this one. This was unusual for her. She tried not to think about it too much, but something was stopping her from being the wingperson that Balthazar wanted. (She would never admit this, not even to herself, but she had the feeling that Pedro wasn’t worthy of Balthazar. She couldn’t figure out why she felt this way. It wasn’t that Ursula didn’t want them together, she did, but she wasn’t sure right now was the time.)  
She sat with Balthazar and let him talk about Pedro for hours on end. He was sending hints to Pedro, or at least he thought he was, but Pedro didn’t seem to be picking up on it. Balthazar wanted to come out, but he just wasn’t sure.  
After Beatrice’s public rejection of Pedro, Balthazar wasn’t really sure how to feel. In a way he was heartbroken, but he also knew that Pedro was heartbroken. Ursula didn’t push him to write and record the Ode, but she had told him that maybe his music could help him figure things out. She had certainly thought the song was obvious enough even for Pedro to figure out, dense as he was. Still, she was there for Balthazar when things didn’t work in his favor, picking up the pieces.  
It ended up being her idea that Balthazar stayed away from Pedro for a while. She didn’t tell him to give up hope, but that maybe he needed to wait a little longer, Pedro needed some time to figure things out.


	5. Chapter 5

Ursula was really frustrated.  She just was not in a good place right now.

First of all, her phone call with her old friend, Stella, had gone, well, not exactly as she had liked.  Stella had been kind, that wasn’t the problem.  She had invited Ursula over for dinner the coming Friday and had apologized a million times for everything. They had talked on the phone for over an hour, but still Ursula got the feeling that Stella was leaving something out.  She had seemed so excited to see her in person, but Ursula wasn’t sure she wanted this. The conversation had left her more confused than ever.  It had been so many years since she had seen her friends, was she going to be able to fit in again? How was she going to relate to them? She had avoided so many things because they brought back too many memories that she couldn’t handle now, so she wasn’t even sure she was going to be able to talk to them about anything. And she was still a little upset with them.  She didn’t know if she was ever going to get over that.

And on top of that, she had had all of this ridiculous homework piled on by her teachers the past week.  She had barely had time to help Verges and Dogberry with their new video idea and her own photos for her personal project.  She still hadn’t had time to ask Verges what she had been so upset about earlier. Verges had tried not to come to her with problems since that night, for which Ursula was simultaneously grateful and slightly concerned.

And then there was the whole Balthazar and Pedro thing.  Ursula was constantly making sure Balthazar was okay.  She herself was avoiding Pedro, and, in a way, the whole group of boys. She was too upset about everything that she couldn’t even bring herself to watch Ben’s videos since so many of them had Pedro in them.  She was trying to block that boy out of her mind for Balthazar’s sake.  She needed Balthazar to know she was there for him, the way he had been there for her so many years ago.  Plus it wasn’t like she actually had time to watch the videos anyway.

As she drove over to Bea and Hero’s place for their sleepover, she tried to calm herself, let go of her frustration.  The worst part about all of this was that they didn’t know about most of her problems. She couldn’t talk about Verges or Balthazar because those problems weren’t hers to share.  And she still wasn’t ready to talk about her own problems. Hero would listen, silently and without judgment. Meg and Bea, on the other hand, would each take the situation differently, giving advice where it wasn’t needed and then somehow making it about themselves.  She loved them dearly, but sometimes she could only handle so much of them. And there was no way to talk to Hero without talking to Bea and Meg as well, so for now, she needed to forget about her problems.

This culminated in a slightly uncomfortable sleepover.  She knew she didn’t look herself.  She was a little on edge, a bit fed-up with Bea and Meg.  She didn’t know what to do and tried to only say positive things all night, but there was a pit in her stomach.  She had a bad feeling that things were only going to get worse from here.


	6. Chapter 6

Friday night arrived, and Ursula, still unsure of her decision, got ready to go to Stella’s house for dinner.  She was no longer upset with her old friends, which she took as a good sign.  She just felt slightly queasy and had tried several breathing exercises over the span of an hour to calm herself down.  She wondered what her friends would think of her now, the most self-assured person in the group worried about how people would perceive her.  She had changed her outfit at least five times, finally forcing herself to settle on her favorite dress when she looked at the clock and realized that she was going to be late. As she picked up her purse, hands shaking, her phone rang and there was Balthazar with words of encouragement, “Everything’s going to be great! I know you, you know you, you’re going to go there and talk it out and you’ll figure everything out. No need to be nervous.” Verges texted her, “I’m rooting for you! You know we’re hear for you no matter what.” Even Dogberry sent a little message, “The Watch approves of this dinner.  We will be watching for any signs of disappointment from you.” With newfound confidence, she walked out of the door, got in her car, and drove.

Still, by the time she got to Stella’s house, the pit in Ursula’s stomach was back. Surprisingly, she got another text message, this time from Ben of all people.  “Hey Ursula, I don’t know what’s going on right now, but Balthazar said you may need a little confidence booster.  Just letting you know that I’m here for you!”  Ursula felt slightly better and worse.  Poor Ben, even when he was feeling horrible about the whole Beatrice situation and no one watching his videos he was still helping his friends. And it was obvious why Balthazar had told Ben to send the message.  Ben wouldn’t pry, not like the girls would, and Ben wasn’t Pedro, whom Balthazar was still avoiding.

Silently thanking her friends and vowing to talk to Ben later, Ursula rang the doorbell. Stella opened the door and immediately, Ursula was enveloped in a hug and suddenly, everything felt okay. After a good five minutes, she finally walked into the house, only to be greeted by several more hugs from old friends. “I hope you don’t mind, I invited a few other people, some old friends, and a few new people I thought you may like to meet,” Stella mentioned, a little too late. “Okay, maybe more than a few. Sorry, it may have turned into a little bit of a party.  I hadn’t planned on it, but I invited one person and then another and then it just kind of snowballed. We’ve all really missed you.” Ursula glanced around the room only to see that there were easily 50 people there.  How did that even happen?  At least everyone was Asian; that was one less thing to worry about.

Ursula tried to forget about all of this and just pretend like she had just taken a short vacation from her Asian friends.  That definitely helped.  She did some catching up with Michelle and Stephanie and Sunny.  She laughed and smiled with everyone when Albert started telling jokes, some of which no one understood. There was pizza with all her favorite toppings and someone had even brought a few board games to play, in case they got bored of just talking.  She felt normal for the first time in years.

Sometime in the middle of the party, Stella took Ursula aside.  She pulled her upstairs to her bedroom,  “I really need to tell you something.  I was planning on telling you after everyone had left, but I think maybe it’s important I tell you now.”  Seeing Ursula’s concern, she quickly added, “Don’t worry, it’s not bad news. It’s good news, uhh, well it’s news. I guess I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether it’s good or not.”

“So, back when you made your little announcement, sorry, I don’t want to bring back bad memories, but things changed a lot.  Our group kind of shattered a bit.  We were upset that our parents weren’t letting us talk to you.  We wanted to let you know we cared, I even tried to sneak out to come see you one time, but I got caught, and let’s just say things got bad. You know my parents, how they were. Whenever the group wanted to get together, we had a chaperone; our parents didn’t trust us not to contact you somehow. I don’t know what they thought they were saving us from.

And then there were a few of us that did agree with the parents.  You remember Kevin?  There’s a reason why he’s not here.  He got real homophobic, and we kind of just stopped talking to him. And when we stopped talking to him, a few others went along with him.

Sorry, I’m going off on a tangent.  The point is, about a year after you…left, I figured out that I was bisexual. And Josh told us that he was trans. I mean, it’s Jessica now; her name is Jessica.  She’s here, I don’t know if you saw her or not.  She told me I was allowed to tell you, by the way, I’m not just outing her.”

Ursula just stared at Stella.  She hadn’t expected this.

“You don’t know this, but you gave us the courage to come out to our parents. It really helped. My parents, they weren’t on board at first, but they came around.”  There were tears in Stella’s eyes now.  “And after that, I wanted to call you, but I didn’t know how mad you were or if you ever wanted to see me or talk to me again and I missed you so much. I’m so glad you called.” By this point tears were streaming down her face.  It was at this precise moment that a dark Indian girl walked into the room.

Stella wiped away her tears and introduced her, “This is Aarthi.  She’s in the year below us.  We met her after a whole bunch of us came out.”

“I’m asexual, like you,” Aarthi blurted out.  It was pretty clear she hadn’t been anticipating this conversation when she had walked in.

“Uhh, yeah. We told her about how brave you were back then when you came out and it, uhh, helped.  You’re the reason she came out to her parents. I mean I know you weren’t here, but you made us a closer friend group.”

Ursula looked shell-shocked, she was sure; she didn’t have any idea how to take in any of this information.  Was she supposed to be glad that her pain had brought her friends together? Was she supposed to be happy that four years of her own misery, struggling to be okay with herself, worried that any friends she ever made were going to turn their backs on her, had made her old friends comfortable with their own sexualities?

Aarthi stood awkwardly for a few moments, hesitating, before deciding to speak. “You’re allowed to be upset.” Ursula blinked at her. “I mean, you don’t have to be happy about any of this.  You obviously went through some hard times, and you don’t really owe any of us anything.”

“I just think it’s a little too much to take in,” Ursula said finally. “Is it okay if I just sit here for a few more minutes?  I need some time alone.”

Stella and Aarthi left quickly.  Ursula didn’t even know how to collect her thoughts.  She needed to call Balthazar.  When she looked at her phone, she noticed several new text messages.  “How’s it going?  Are you enjoying yourself?” from Balthazar and a “The Watch is going to sleep now, but is eagerly awaiting your news in the furthering days.” from Dogberry and Verges, and then a couple of messages from Bea and Hero and Meg asking about their weekend plans and “What’s going on, why aren’t you texting back?”

She realized her phone had buzzed so many times during the party and she hadn’t even noticed. She really had felt like she was apart of the gang again.  Her normalcy, she could regain that again.  So what if things had been bad for a while?  Was she really going to get upset because people were happy now?

She picked herself up and walked back into the party, stopping only to view herself in the mirror, to make sure she didn’t look upset.  She was making the decision to be happy.


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning, Ursula woke with a smile on her face.  Things had gone so well after she had returned to the party and she ended up staying well passed midnight, talking with her friends.  Stella’s parents returned home and had told Ursula to come to the next big Chinese celebration and promised they would call her parents when they were getting ready to invite.  Ursula hadn’t thought about it much, but she realized that when she had lost her friends, her parents had lost theirs as well.  They had chosen to stand with their daughter instead of with the society in which they felt most comfortable.  And when Ursula conveyed the invitation message to them, she saw the joy on their faces. She had no idea how she was so clued into her friends’ emotions, but not her parents.  She needed to pay more attention to them, clearly.

She texted Verges letting her know that the party had gone well and to thank her and Dogberry for their messages.  She had already phoned Balthazar last night before bed.  She was so lucky to have such good friends.  Nothing was going to wipe the smile off of her face today.

She actually hang out with people today.  She didn’t know whom to call though.  Hero and Bea were busy planning Hero’s birthday party and Meg was busy with Robbie. She could call Balthazar, but he had expressed a wish for more alone time recently, and she didn’t want to bug him too much.  She was thinking about calling him anyway when her phone buzzed.  Verges had texted, “Ursula, I’m glad the party went well. Umm, is it cool if I come over today? I need to talk to you.”

“Yeah, of course.” Verges hadn’t been talking to her much lately, and she knew this was because Verges didn’t want to worry her. But she knew something had been bothering Verges for several weeks.

It wasn’t until after her hearty breakfast of pancakes that the doorbell rang. She opened the door to see an upset and tired Verge, looking nervous.

“Hey, Verges, you want some pancakes?”

“No, thanks. I ate already. Can we go upstairs or something?”

They walked up the stairs, Verges still looking quite anxious.  Ursula was so confused, why was Verges worried about talking to her?  Had she done something wrong? Ursula thought she had been clear that Verges could come to her with anything, but the way Verges looked-Verges knocked over a wooden vase that was sitting on Ursula’s desk. “Sorry, sorry”

“It’s fine, it’s not like it’s broken or anything.  Are you sure you don’t want anything?  I can get you tea, we have some downstairs.  My mom taught me how to make some green tea that calms nerves.”

Verges was staring at the floor now.  “No, I just-I don’t know who else to talk to.  I know you, umm, you had trouble a few years back when you came out?  And I just thought maybe you could help me?”

Ursula just looked at her. Twice in two days people were coming to her with this kind of information.  And both times she had no clue.  What was going on with her these days?

“Yeah, whatever you need.  And if you’re not ready-”

“No, I’m ready. I’m agender.”

There was a pause.

“Okay. Umm, I don’t really have a lot of information on-”

“That’s not what I need help with.  I want to tell Dogberry, but I’m afraid.”  Finally Verges looked up to Ursula.

“You don’t have to come out yet, you know that, right?  No one is forcing you to tell anyone you don’t want to.”

“Yeah, but you’re finishing school soon and Dogberry’s the only person that won’t bully me once you leave.  I need to tell someone. I can’t tell my family, they’re already afraid the devil is after me.  And I don’t have anyone else.”  Verges looked on the verge of tears.

“Okay, okay. How can I help you?”

“I just need you to be there?  When I tell him. And I need you to not use pronouns.”

“Huh?”

“I mean, call me Verges.  Don’t call me anything else?  I haven’t figured out what pronouns I want to use yet.”

“Oh, yeah, of course.”


	8. Chapter 8

Ursula had taken a much-needed break away from her real life by going hiking with her parents. Even though everything was going so well with her friends, she felt like she just needed to get away from them for a while. She wanted to stop worrying about other people for just a little while. How could she have known the second she got back to Messina everything would change? She hadn’t expected turmoil at Hero’s birthday of all things.

She did what she could for Hero after all of those horrid things Claudio had said, but Ben had decided to take charge of most of it. Bea was taking care of Hero and Ben was going around alternately telling people to leave, helping people clean things up, and making sure Bea was okay. Leo, after making sure Hero wasn’t physically injured, had decided to go and see if he could find Robbie. Ursula was numb, not that anyone around her could tell, with the way Ursula busied herself, making sure the whole place was spotless and that no one made too much noise in case they upset Hero. By around 11 PM, everything was cleaned up. Balthazar, bewildered as he had been when Pedro had agreed with Claudio, was wrought with grief. He looked so tired and could barely make any sound when he suggested they leave.

She decided right then that there was no way she was going to let him be alone tonight. She called her parents and informed them that she was staying at Balthazar’s for the night. It was her job, as best friend, to make sure Balth didn’t go back into the mopey stage he had been in after Pedro had laughed at his Ode.

“He-he hurt Hero, Ursula,” Balthazar’s finally said as they reached his driveway.

“Yeah, he did, but it’s all probably just a big misunderstanding,” she tried to comfort him.

“He believed what Claudio said! He’s known her for years, how could he,” Balth’s voice faltered again. “How could I fall for such a jerk?”

“You don’t always get to choose who you fall for,” Ursula replied.

“How would you know? It’s not like you’ve ever-”

“Hey! Just because the boy you like did something wrong doesn’t mean you get to take it out on me!” Ursula knew this wasn’t a jab at her sexuality, she knew Balthazar too well, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.

“Sorry, sorry, you’re right. I just, I’m so angry with him!”

“I know, we all are. You could talk to him, he would listen to you.”

“I’m not even sure I’m going to be able to talk to him after this. Not for a while at least. I can’t take any more heartbreak.”

“That’s okay. You avoided him well enough last time. We can even sit with Dogberry and Verges at lunch again. You know they enjoy the company.”

Balthazar nodded. They were inside now, Balth getting out the sleeping bag Ursula always used when she stayed over. It wasn’t until they were both lying down, almost asleep that Balthazar whispered, “Hey, Ursula? What’s going to happen to us now? How are we all going to stay friends?”

There was a long pause. Balthazar was afraid Ursula had actually fallen asleep when, “I don’t know Balthy. But you know no matter what happens, the two of us will always be friends.”


	9. Chapter 9

Ursula had to put up that video. _She had to._ The number of rude comments she had heard about Hero, all of the snippets she had seen on other people’s Facebook pages, she couldn’t just sit around and let Hero be slandered! Ursula never liked butting heads with Beatrice, but Ursula knew she was right to put the video up. It gave everything more perspective. It showed Hero as a victim of something, rather than an instigator. Hero hadn’t provoked Claudio, like she had heard some girl say in her Chemistry class earlier. Hero had not been kissing Robbie during the party and goading Claudio, which was the latest rumor Ursula had heard. She was sick of everyone talking about Hero like they had any idea what had happened.

That’s why she uploaded the video. To help Hero. Not to instigate a fight with Beatrice. Not to make Hero look worse, which, at this point, was impossible. Ursula was doing the right thing. She knew that. She didn’t know how long it would take to convince Bea though.

Not to mention she didn’t even know how Hero was doing. From what Bea had told her before her silent treatment had been imposed, Hero was slightly under the weather, which is why she hadn’t been at school lately. But surely she was okay enough to pick up her phone? Or send her a text message? Ursula had no idea why she was getting the silent treatment from Hero. Hero wasn’t like that. And anyway, there was no reason for her to give the silent treatment _before_ the video had been uploaded.

Ursula was starting to get frustrated. She wasn’t getting any of the information she needed and her investigations into what had happened were getting nowhere. She couldn’t even manage to talk to Pedro or Claudio; they shot her down every time she so much as said hi. Neither of them were the slightest bit interested in talking to her. And Ursula definitely couldn’t make Balthazar do the dirty work for her, not with everything he was going through.

And poor Meg was still in shock. She was refusing to speak to Hero and flinched any time someone mentioned Robbie’s name. She was taking the rumors harder than anyone. Ursula knew Meg didn’t really believe Hero could’ve done anything wrong, but this was the second time in a matter of weeks that Meg and Robbie had had a huge fight.

If Ursula thought it would have been helpful, she would have asked Dogberry and Verges if they had heard anything, but the two of them were too busy to even talk to her most of the time. She thought they might know something, but ever since the party, they were overly excited about everything and their vocabulary had gotten a lot harder to understand. And anyway, their investigating had never gone that well in the past, it was pretty likely whatever they were thinking was just more rumors.

This left her only one line of communication: Ben. Despite the fact that they weren’t that close, Ursula knew she could trust Ben to tell her if anything major happened. Ben was surreptitiously texting her, letting her know that Bea and Hero were still alive, but never much more than that. He was too afraid of losing his tentative connection with Bea. And he was a little upset Ursula had posted the video. She had, however, recently gotten a message informing her that Leo of all people had decided to side with Claudio over Hero, the dimwit.

Ursula was glad Bea had someone with her though. Although she would never admit it, Bea needed someone to lean on, and Ursula could think of no one better than Ben to take up that role.  She really was glad that they were getting along now.

She just wish it hadn’t come at such a price.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning of food mention and a little talk of violence and injury, just in case. Also thank you to everyone who has been reading and leaving comments and kudos, it's very nice of you. :)

It had been a little over two weeks since Ursula had posted that video of Hero’s Birthday. Bea was still not talking to her and Hero wasn’t showing up to school. Ursula had finally convinced Meg after school one day that Hero hadn’t done anything wrong. But Meg was in such a bad place that Ursula had taken to shielding her from any and all rumors and making sure that she was always in happy company.

And then there was Balthazar. Ursula knew that he had talked to Pedro, tried to convince him that maybe Claudio was wrong, but all he had gotten was more inner turmoil. Pedro was still convinced Hero had cheated and that they had done the right thing at her party. Balthazar thought he could talk some sense into him, but, seeing that he couldn’t, had gone straight back to avoiding Pedro like the plague.

With all of this going on, she had started losing track of Dogberry and Verges. The two of them were up to something, but Ursula had no idea what and she wasn’t even sure it was important. At least the two of them were preoccupied, if nothing else. She wasn’t sure she could handle any more drama at the moment.

Ursula was so, so glad she had friends to complain to. Stella had gotten the brunt of all of the venting; she was the one Ursula texted constantly for reassurance that she was doing the right thing. And Jessica had been nice enough to Skype with her a few times after school, comforting her and giving advice as needed. Michelle, the party animal that she was, had decided that all of this meant that Ursula needed a break and decided to have a party at her place. Michelle’s parents were going to be out of the house for all of Saturday and had told her it would be fine to have friends over. Ursula was continuously grateful that all of her friends’ parents were so trusting. Of course, they had reason to be, but it was nice all the same.

Michelle had thought this was a great opportunity for a girls’ night, since they didn’t get those very often. “We can tie-dye shirts and paint each other’s nails and bake cookies! It’s going to be so fun!” Michelle had exclaimed over the phone.

“Sounds great! Do you want me to bring anything?” Ursula asked.

“Nope, just come over at like 11.”

When Ursula arrived at Michelle’s house Saturday morning, she sat in the driveway for a minute, amazed at how much difference a month could make. Almost a month ago, she had been dreading her visit to Stella’s place, worried at all of the things that could go wrong, and now she was excited to see everyone again. She had gone from complaining about her Asian friends to Balthazar to complaining about her white friends to Stella. It was like the drama had passed from one friend group to the other.

She shook her head in wonder and then walked to the front door. The door opened before she even had the chance to ring the doorbell. “Hey! How are you? Sorry, I didn’t mean to freak you out like that,” Michelle greeted her.

“It’s fine, is everyone else here already?” Ursula asked.

“So Jessica is going to come late because she has a doctor’s appointment and Aarthi and Sunny are on their way. They live in the same neighborhood, so they’re carpooling. But Stephanie and Stella are here.” She paused, realizing they were still standing in the doorway. She gestured for Ursula to follow her into the house and then shut the door.

“We were thinking that we would start making cookies first, since Jessica’s not really a huge fan of baking. She really wants to tie-dye, though, so we’re going to wait until she gets here for that.”

Ursula nodded as she walked past Michelle’s incredibly large living room into the kitchen. She hadn’t been here since before the falling out, and she was remembering all of the good times she had had. Michelle’s family had always hosted New Year’s parties, since they had such a big house. All of the kids would hang out in the basement while the parents mingled upstairs. They had a set of real katana in their basement, and one year, some of the kids took them off of the wall where they were hanging and started playing with them. That ended when one of the kids was injured, only slightly, but enough to need stitches. After that, the swords had been locked away upstairs, where no one was allowed to go.

“You there, Ursula?” Stella asked.

“Oh yeah, I was just remembering that time Chris and Mason were playing with the swords in the basement.”

“Oh my gosh, that was the worst New Year’s party. My parents were so mad. And Chris was like 17, you would think he would have known better,” Michelle fumed, exasperated, as she placed all of the ingredients on the counter.

“Yeah, and poor Mason. He had to go to the hospital. His parents were so freaked out too,” Stephanie added.

“Are the katana still locked upstairs?” Ursula asked.

“No, they hung them up in the basement again, but they’re in a glass case now. Okay, let’s get started on these cookies, shall we?” Aarthi and Sunny had now arrived and now everyone busied themselves with making the dough.

By the time they had put the cookies in the oven, Jessica had arrived, shopping bags in tow. “I bought a bunch of white t-shirts for us to dye!” she exclaimed when everyone stared at her.

“I already bought t-shirts,” Michelle said, acting annoyed even though she really wasn’t.

“I know, I just really like tie-dying.”

Ursula laughed at the ridiculousness of the conversation. “Do we even have enough dye for all of those shirts?”

“I have like 5 kits because my little sister really wanted them and then she never used them.”

“Are you sure she’s going to be okay with us using _all_ of the dye?” Sunny was laughing.

“She’ll be fine.” Michelle waved her off.

2 hours later, dye all over the garage floor, they had successfully tie-dyed about 15 shirts.

“I’m tired,” Aarthi wailed, lying on the ground.

“Yeah, can we be done now?” Sunny lay down next to her.

“Come on, I still have like 5 more shirts and we have a bunch more dye!” Jessica was super excited about this. She had made such a mess and the shirt she was wearing had turned an odd shade of purple at the bottom.

“Why don’t we go inside for a little while, the garage is hot. We can watch a movie and paint our nails and then come back and finish off the shirts. Plus I really think you’re going to need to wash your shirt.” Ursula mediated. Jessica agreed and they all went inside. Michelle brought out some popsicles and the cookies sat on the counter.

“What movie do you want to watch? I’ve got She’s the Man, 10 Things I Hate About You, West Side Story…”

“Have you got anything _other_ than an adaptation of a Shakespeare play? I already feel like I’m part of one, what with all of this friend drama going on,” Ursula sighed.

“We could watch Mean Girls.”

“Why don’t we watch a Disney movie?”

“Ooh! Princess and the Frog!”

They gathered up the snack-food and moved near the TV while Michelle grabbed the DVD and Stephanie got the nail polish. They sat through the movie and then Aarthi wanted to watch Mulan, so they ended up watching that too. By the time that was finished, Ursula’s mom had texted her and told her to come home.

“Sorry Jessica, we’ll finish tie-dying some other time?” Ursula apologized.

Ursula got home fully refreshed to deal with whatever new problems were to come.


	11. Chapter 11

’What had these children been thinking? You can’t just go around kidnapping people and tying them up to chairs for interrogations’ was Ursula’s first thought as she watched Dogberry and Verges’s latest videos. The technique had worked, but that didn’t make it any less illegal. She was going to have to give them a stern talking to.

Still, Ursula was kicking herself for not realizing what they two of them had been up to. She knew they had been uploading videos on her channel, but she figured they were just nonsense like their first few videos. She had been really busy, not to mention stressed about Hero and Meg and Balthazar. Plus Bea was still angry with her. She had thought she could trust Dogberry and Verges to take care of themselves for a few weeks while everything blew over, but apparently, she had been wrong. And she had no idea where they go their ideas. Hero dead? What were they talking about? Didn’t they know one ambulance did not equal a dead person?

She stopped herself, there was no use in getting angry with them. That would make everyone more upset. No, she needed to handle this situation delicately. She knew both Dogberry and Verges had enough people yelling at them on a daily basis. (She was fairly certain Verges would have a breakdown if she did yell.)

Ursula thought about the situation for a moment longer and an idea came to mind. It was entirely possible she could use this situation to her advantage. Claudio and Pedro had been told Hero was dead; they probably heard about the ambulance. What if Bea told them Hero was just sick and in the hospital… Yes, she would go talk to Dogberry and Verges and then they would go to the Duke’s place. They could get back at Claudio and Pedro. It would require a little lying, but Ursula figured they could handle it. After all, they had managed it with Team Love Gods. And this was a far more serious issue. This plan would definitely work.


End file.
